VS Code
Give GitHub Copilot’s agent mode real-time web search, content extraction, and citation-backed research through the You.com MCP Server.
Install our docs MCP server
This documentation ships with a Docs MCP Server that gives any MCP-enabled agent a searchDocs tool to search every page here and get back relevant passages with source URLs — no API key required. Point your client at https://you.com/docs/_mcp/server. See the Docs MCP Server guide for setup and examples.
Requirements: GitHub Copilot extension installed and signed in. MCP servers in VS Code run inside Copilot’s agent mode.
Quick Setup
One-Command Install
Fastest path — drop this in your terminal:
VS Code opens, prompts you to confirm, and the server is live. Free tier — no signup, 100 searches/day.
Manual Setup
If you’d rather configure by hand: open Settings → Search → “mcp”, click Edit in settings.json, and add:
VS Code gotcha: the top-level key is mcp.servers, not mcpServers. This is different from Claude Desktop and Cursor’s format.
Higher Rate Limits + Full Toolset
With an API key, you get unlimited queries plus you-contents and you-research:
Get a key at you.com/platform.
Quick Demo
In Copilot agent mode:
Troubleshooting
No MCP servers found
Confirm you used mcp.servers, not mcpServers. VS Code’s schema is namespaced differently from other clients.
Tools not appearing in Copilot agent mode
Make sure you’re in Agent mode, not Ask or Edit. MCP tools only surface in Agent mode.
Server connects but tools never trigger
In the Copilot tools picker, confirm the You.com tools are ticked. They default to enabled, but a long server list can push them off-screen.
401 with API key
Verify the Authorization header is exactly Bearer YDC-... with one space.
Copilot extension not installed
Install GitHub Copilot from the VS Code marketplace and sign in before configuring MCP.